Bio Cotton! my new love!

man! cotton is such a fascinating stuff..as a serious follower of agriculture and in the context of anti-GM politics, cotton had a different dimension for me. BT cotton is full of contradictions and flaw..lots of failures and health hazards that I didnt see the cotton there but only the politricks behind it and foul play of the MNCs.

Then I did have some stories on cotton seed oil entering our food cycle (and hence BT) and the compromise we make by consuming refined oil.
I also had the luck to go with kk on a cotton trail few months back!

But what i have now is all different from this.
an year and half ago when I visited Madurai Thalanmai, I had documented about the millets processing and how the women groups out there process the millets by hand. Then as we spoke about rain fed agri, it went on to cotton and since that is so soft on the ecology, I thought we shud do something extra..These small farmers who grow cotton organically that too rain fed shud be compensated more for their eco services..
so we thot they shudnt be selling their produce as raw cotton but with some value add..hence we pitched in and after cotton procurement put it to hand spinning, hand weaving, natural dyeing, manual stitching and buttons made of coconut shells! Can u think of a more eco friendly shirt? Low on water, low on energy, low on pollution, zero effluents!
But did it sell like hot cakes? NO! due to various reasons like no variety, only 2 sizes, it was just small sample, etc.

Now we want to go ahead and make this a more structured bigger project involving some 15 farmers which wud translate to 30 acres. this wud also offer livelihood to 15 weaver families apart from the 15 farmers. Add a few more in the form of stitching etc. sounds very interesting and noble!

So I had to try and learn more and as one goes closer, so many things are striking.
Phew..there is so much behind a garment..so many steps, so much process, so much creativity, value add..ofcourse in the chemical way- so much chemicals, effluents, pollution, sucking up of water, energy..
One wud shudder to sport a cloth if u really see it closer!
Add to that many more processes like knitting, printing, block, etc..just no end..
But the pity is the farmer at the end of a 10 month crop has been getting the same pittance for ages..a design house and hence a designer is the most benefited in this cycle. Ofcourse as my friend jai (who has done so much research and given me so much gyan) says ‘if the farmer has a clue of the value of the final product and the margins/revenue made by those he wud prolly chop them all’.
As for me I wud never dye a product and wud just live with unbleached off white stuff..
But for now, I will work on natural dyes along with machine spinning, hand weaving, manual stitching to somehow get the farmer some due. We intend setting up a replicable system so that many more such small and marginal farmers start (a cooperative or some hybrid model we come out with), run and benefit.
To share the nuances of weaving, hand spinning, dyeing etc means some reams shud pass by. Paucity and brevity stops me here. That’s all for another day.
More cotton stories later..for now wish us luck..try and read more on cotton, organic that too and other processes! value and respect any cloth and thank the farmer for having produced them year after year even though they were hardly compensated.

Touching and inspiring! Motivating too!!

Loganathan- lost his father when he was very young and hence had to work to win bread for him and family..but wanted to study..couldn't do due to domestic pressure..
So what will one do? He resolves to save 10% of his monthly income (which amounts to Rs 300/-) and collect over an year and donate it to some one who wants to study but is unable to pursue due to lack of money..
Not big amount..but the heart?? Yes, I too brace to hear more as I think this is stupendous..
And then? This man meets a toilet cleaner who was just out after donating blood.. so loganathan is impressed and asks him about his story.. That man says, 'I am from a lower caste and hence there isn’t much acceptability, but for blood there's no caste..so I do this very regularly..' This man is touched..so as they exchange stories, the blood donor is impressed by this ‘educator’ and says, what will u do if u get more?
But how asks Logs..and this man says, 'I have been asked to clean toilets in a few additional places but lack of time, am unable to take them up.. are u game? This means cleaning the toilet in an office that will get u Rs 400 a month and another private premises which can fetch u Rs 300/-..'
Oops- This is a 3 times jump and this means 1k a month for my contribution..so Logs jumps at it..
He now has to spend 2 hours extra in the morning and 2 in the evening..he does that with glee as he now gets a 3 times higher amount to donate!!
An amount that most of us would just throw for a dinner- has such inspiring story!!

Rajini- a student from a very poor family..gets top mark in his public exam..so is being felicitaed and gets a grant..He then checks out the value of his fees in the next year..does a quick math and tells the ones who give him the grant to take the rest 90% of the value and support 9 more poor students.. every one is blown over! Actor surya who was witness to this is flabbergasted..and so he starts his own agaram foundation motivated by this extraordinary move by a kid..

A grave yard keeper (vettiyan) in some interior TN village wants to help poor students study well and so saves money from his income and ‘over time’ and helps organise tuition for poor students to fare well in exams..

An old poor couple who have no children, suddenly get this wave to adopt banyan trees and take care of them as their own children..so when they were last visited their score was 100..so how many 100s does a tendulkar need to score to come near them?

So whats this? Where did I hear all these touching and inspiring stories??

Jagan from Pakkam village 40kms from Madras near thinanoor was the one who stumped me with such stories..He himself can fit in to one such story..that comes later..
He was given this challenge to bring some lesson (education?) to students without being part of text book, additional period or classroom..so he got this brain wave to go around identify great men from humble settings and show case them.
He travelled around TN and identified such great men from very ordinary background and small places and would take them to a big school in the near by town or city.. this way he managed to educate (open eyes?) the city students and also bring these great gentlemen to forefront..

He has 500 such stories…hmm…pant..pant..This collation of extra ordinary stories is called “ennangalain sangamam-எண்ணங்களின் சங்கமம்) he even organizes a meeting of all such amazing folks the first Sunday of every January!

So if you did some small deed somewhere, contributed an amount once in a blue moon for a cause, please come to my side and stand humbled..yes you can cringe like me..

This man jagan came to the meeting in the beginning of this year, where I had shared my Kisan swaraj yatra experiences. Even there he impressed me with a fantastic observation he made..
He came up with one of the best observations backed with stats that I have ever come across.
He said he had asked all his fellow villagers to note down every expense and income for 3 months. Then he collected it from all the 120 house holds in his village.
And found that just above 1 crore Rupees is spent on only 3 items.and this is more than 80% of the total expense!
Now take a guess on the 3 top expenses..

No u wudnt have, am sure..
Its Pesticides n chemicals, Drugs (medicines) and Tasmac (the great TN entertainer- alcohol)..
His observation was this full amount was a bleed and went out of the village..so he said it was unfair economics and a needless drain..
But what he told next was the steal..
He said if they went back to traditional farming (organic/natural) the 1st 2 could be avoided..and to avoid the 3rd he has already started youth groups to campaign against drinking alcohol and has faced fair amount of success..when I visited his village,I did meet some of the youth who had vowed not to drink in their life and also working on rehabilitating others.Jagan also runs a school for poor and orphans in his village. For more info see here. This by itself needs to be another story, for later.

Now he has turned his eye on organic farming..he has taken some land on lease and has even hired and motivated some local farm labours to work along with him in his land..he has contacted many families and asked them to be a part of this organic movement by being captive market for next one year by contributing some money in advance and in turn get organic veggies and fruits from his land.. a Novel idea and am sure it will succeed, going by his energy and pace..i for one has assured to work closely with him and wish to help him achieve his goals and even do more..

Way to go jagan..its on seeing people like you that I renew hopes on humanity..I feel motivated and start expending right energies..hats off and you keep walking..some of us will get influenced and contribute in some ways like the squirrels of Ramayana..

secularism again..

oh yeah!
our skewed secularism is surfacing again..
to hit back at Anna Hazare - the cong and NCP cohorts are trying their best..they poke at Anna not being secular bcos he, apparently, praised Modi (and Nitesh too, but thats to be sidelined) as a performing CM! Oh! how can he?
come on..atleast contextually,it suits..Modi is supposed to be incorruptible..atleast ManMohan's bosses the Americans too think so..Infact RahulG said so recently..so do all of them become anti-secular?oops will any cong man think that way? against a G? hmm..how preposterous..
meanwhile, i am happy NCP is training its gun on Hazare..wish this boils in to a bigger fight and Anna wipes Pawar out..i really salivate at that thought..

Fair ending to Annas fast!

atlast after 98 hours Anna Hazare ends his fast. There was such an overwhelming response from the public, its a great thing to happen. The media showing interest (prolly bcos the cricketers were on a small hols- between world cup and IPL) was a big fillip..i saw the print media had more restraint and reason, surprisingly.

Meanwhile this fats and the swelling of ordinary citizens on the road is not the end of it..not even will i describe this a victory..
But a welcome change..
for once the public mind was expressed clearly across India..
also this was a fantastic way of communicating our wish and will..

may be the bill needs more thinking..there could be pressing practical issues..
for once the public participation in articulating, understanding and even communicating about a law was intense..democracy at work in a very welcome way..
hope this is the beginning..hope there is more transparency in all the bills from draft stage..hope there is more active civil society participation and more sanity infused in to our hitherto non-functional democracy.

Another very striking feature was the large participation of the youth..hope this sustains and continues to be a watch dog and walks the full distance.

Its also commendable how people like Kiran Bedi conducted..its a great sign..an understanding of why a single tall leader is always important for movements..

Go Anna go! as was demonstrated, whole nation is behind you. now accomplish the 'asks'. set the stage for more victories.

Kudos yeddy!

Karnataka government is freaking out!
Iam impressed..
Its the first state in India to come out with a state budget on agriculture!
When the initial talks last weeks were heard I thought it could be symbolic..
But he has indeed lived up to it. He even stretched it all a bit by addressing a group of farmers before and after the budget and there was some sincerity when he talked moved and walked with them to the secretariat! iam happy.
the budget itself - the agri part looks good and hope the tempo is maintained. What attracted my eyes is the generous allocation to organic farming:-)
Way to Go Yeddy!
highlights being: prime area for agri in the budget over all; Rs.17,857 crores allocated for agri sector; Organic farming a separate head under Suvarna Bhoomi Yojana; Rs 1,000 crore will be provided for development of 10 lakh farmer families;

to quote the CM: “..In this direction, I propose to accord more importance to formulating appropriate schemes for the increasing numbers of the marginal and small farmers, addressing the lack of appropriate technology, providing essential and modern processing facilities, construction of godowns and cold-storages and organising partnerships with institutions having expertise and mobilising adequate capital for implementing these strategies along with formulating supporting policies..”
saw that? schemes to increase number of marginal and small farmers! impressive aint?

Karnataka Govt is really gaining strides each month in its go organic path..
Even when the CM Yeddyurappa announced last year about his wish to visit an organic farm each month, I thought it was symbolic. and that its another politico's statement..But when i enquired around during my visits to villages, I was told he was consistent there..he did visit an organic farm every month in the last 7-8 months am told and each of these visits were to sincere and serious organic farms!
way to go yeddy!! keep it up.
hope other states follow on these 2 counts - encouraging organic farms and push for lotsa planning around agri sector.

Energy kid

Sanjeev Rao- u r gonna hear this name in the coming years for some very interesting products or awesome projects, am sure.
I heard about this guy thru a friend who stated that this maverick had designed and implemented a wind turbine (generator?) to harvest the wind for electricity in his house in Bangalore and that he was also doubling it up by designing a hybrid version that will make use of the solar energy too!
Hmm, sounds really interesting..so I couldn’t wait to visit Blore..
When I did last week, his house was one of the main agendas.

Meanwhile I happened to see his tamil blog. So when I enquired him ‘how come a Blore Rao had a tamil blog’ he said he was from Neyveli! Oh! Now I know why all this genius and green ideas..
(ahem, am from neyveli too as u all know)
So more reason to visit.

His room has all signs of a genius at work. Spares all around! Open(ed) circuits, half broken/dismantled toys and equipments, hanging wires, meters reading..
Then when we get to see his equipment, am even more baffled. It just has PVC pipes cut across (in to threes) that make up the horizontal wind mill! There were many reused parts and the whole thing was amazing. This design itself was to avoid any questions if a standard typical fan like wind mill was installed. Now, to enhance the harvest and to get the most, he has mounted this on a circular plate which itself is isolated with another one. To ease friction I thought, but this guy had more grey matter. He had opposite pole magnets on each of the plates and so for every small rotation the magnetic levitation would aid more revolutions! Stroke of genius, eh?

So this is helping him with 600 watts- at a cost of around 25k! He is trying many ways to improve the efficiency and to better the cost.

I thought the idea of using solar to trigger the wind turbine and to to have a hybrid device is sooper! The wind alone will need a good wind speed (9mts per sec) and so the hybrid can be a great model for urban users. see video here and more here

Magnets- I mentioned their use already right? But did u know China dominates that too? He needs quite some good quantity of them and they were pricey it seems. The Chinese dominate that area inspite of them having to import iron ore! So if you do have some good contacts, do pass to me/him. He needs some 64 magnets for one turbine and the Chinese ones cost 450 INR, where as in India the same costs 1350!

He is in the process of designing a bigger wind turbine as a special case in pollachi and wud supply to the grid. (that’s for another day)

Ever thought about the wind throw behind every vehicle when it whizzes past on the road? Our man did and so he took this small horizontal model and installed it on the median of the highway near Krishnagiri. On an 8 hour stretch with 9600 of the 4/6 wheelers passing by, he says he could harvest so much that the numbers point to 1Mega watt a day!
Its so simple and easy and if the govt were to do that at say 400 places, u don’t need the recent nuclear project at koodangulam that is making so much noise! (its ofcourse an ecological disaster) .
Then he goes on to show how with just a small strip of solar panel(costing Rs.20 a piece) on the car roof and a rejected (re-used) CPU fan from a PC he circulates the air in small cars to increase the efficiency of the AC. He says this can be bettered and implemented in the buses in Chennai so easily (regulating the air by better circulation) and even could make it work like an air cooler, thus doing away with the AC vehicles and so save fuel and the environment!

What more – he also had made some useful gadgets from used/rejected parts, like a torch from an used up mobile phone battery. There are some other items that he had made but not in any commercial scale or even replication in mind, but just to overcome any shortcomings he wud face. (like while cycling he felt light was an issue so he made one). Even the wind turbines shall be open source. He just plans to share his ideas/experience and help people build cheap ones and generate their own power. Just reduce our dependency on the grid/government he says.

He has accepted to design a cycle operated washing machine for me. He has also offered to work on trying to harvest energy from such cycles to run standard equipments like TV, fridge, washing machine etc. Here again he is contemplating using Magnetic levitation so that more revolutions happen. This, he says, if incorporated in to our genric cycles can help with minimal energy!

There is so much this energykid can do that makes me feel so good that he is not one of those who was merited way high in our academic system. So much for our education system as Sriram rightly points here.

Next Stop!

Most of u in the west wud be familiar with the voice overs in public transport. In CH it was "nachster halt Olten; next stop--; prochain arret--"(oops try right pronouncement for thelast one;-))
I was in a BMTC bus (Bangalore local transport)y'day and suddenly heard this voice over: Next stop sangam circle; mundhina nilthana sangam circle!
Each time I come here,I see a new addition/improvement as for the bus system goes.Its really nice..Volvo AC buses are my favorite mode of transport here.
oops, never mention traffic to me..thats always deteriorating..
still its better to get stuck in a bus than a car or bike..
way to go BMTC!

Neglected lake to Bird sanctuary.

Remember Piyush?
So he is back in full action (ok, a hand tied, due to an accident he had recently, but that cant stop him, we know!) and this time its my pet area too. Water body! But Piyush’s speed is different, you know.
He, during some conversation with the collector, offered to clean the periphery of a lake (50+ acres) called mookeneri lake, involving students and public. This appealed to the collector to sensitise the water body. So Piyush got some 700 people and cleaned a major area around the lake a month back, some 45 days back to be more accurate!
Then he got the collector more involved and asked him to let this evolve with public participation in to a bird sanctuary. The collector liked the idea but suspected the modus operandi. Piyush explained (am sure with lotsa pumped gas, as I know him and great picture he wud have painted with consummate ease)
And asked for written approval from him thru the PWD (which is the authority). Ofcourse who ever owned this lake (from the govt side), as usual hasn’t bothered to even desilt it for last 60 years.
That’s also the reason for no encroachment, IMHO.
So here our man gets in to mobilizing people once the PWD and govt said ok.
But that’s the difference between this small devil and others. The pace at which he will move things and get work done, even if the collector has a rethinking, a major part wud be done before he can wink and frame one sentence.
So our man goes about desilting, getting some JCB and other machines at work- full speed.
When he called me and apprised me of this and asked me to come over to have a look, I said, I shall see it next time I travel that side. And typical of him he pressed me to come over immediately if I wanted to see from scratch. And believe me from the time I spoke to him and 48 hours, so much had been accomplished there!
There were thes huge craters he digs as a part of desilting and creates the huge soil masses which will eventually become huge islands. On top of each island shall come some 200-300 bamboo tress and few huge trees (like peepal, banyan, cherry etc ) which shall attract birds.
The circumference of each island shall be 350-450 feet. Imagine some huge circular islands and some rope bridges connecting them with water alla round and kids going there to camp and educate themselves on environment/ecology.
The plan itself is not anything new, but the pace and the way he starts off without any money even and in the process goes about collecting is typical Piyush. Ofcourse there is a big team out there, a big public participation (esp now with his recent arrest, he has won so much sympathy that he has won so many more supporters!)

Wait! Here was a man who fought and singlehandedly closed a couple of mines around. So if he were to dig from lake site will the politico-corporate nexus not pounce? That was my thinking bcos the right to allow any one to desilt and btake the mud/soil lies with Directorate of Mines. That’s where there is huge chance for lethargy, apathy, no-will-or-action and corruption. So now if he were to take, I cudnt stop imagining..and he coolly says “that’s why I never allowed one tipper to enter here. We will excavate and pile up here itself. So no one can point their finger”. Very clever, me thinks. So that’s piyush. Already eco clubs of schools involved, many leading citizens involved, noted public figures vested with some responsibilities and hence a cool team set up which shall turn this ignored and neglected lake in to a big water body and more than that a special bird sanctuary.
Hats off piyush! Again!!
Keep going..let some rub on people like us and lets be inspired to achieve atleast a small percentage.
And BTW, Thanks for doing this Piyush! An eco restoration worth its salt err water.

for some fotos, bad ones from my mobile, go here.

Note: many of u asked me what happened to his case after that arrest! Strangely nothing! Absolutely nothing!! Yes, the police have no case prolly, so no charge sheet filed as of now. This clearly indicates that had nothing else other than malice and vendetta- in the form of pressure from some political cohort or lout.

Ideal couple- raghu and Nisha!

This has been happening in the recent past. I hear of good folks, great projects, sooper farms, etc. Many times such people/project/farm is already in my to-do list or I have heard and been mulling going over..
And suddenly some friend, like Arya Bhaskar did that day, will make a call and put me through.
So this happened few days back when I was in Coimbatore. So this is a new ‘back to the land’ couple..ok 1.5 years can be new still aint?
As I talk to them I feel comfy and have a feeling that they remind me of the inimitable couple at point return- Sriram & Karpagam and the mention of a low cost eco friendly house in the lines of laurie baker style I decide to go there the very next day.
As expected we gel as friends at the very sight and casually talk about various stuff..so more common friends fall in line and common idea(l)s also come out..
They have been very closely associated with charityfocus.
Raghu in his inimitable style narrates how charity focus evolved and its founder Nipun’s master strokes..he also touches up on how they both got involved and get sold by the ‘gift economy’ and ‘pay-it-forward’ philosophies.Ragu is the brain behind smile cards. A little more time and we discuss seva café, karma kitchen and some more common friends. They are also big fans of DV of Point return, like me. more brownie points to them.
(correction/update: Nisha says raghu is not the brain behind 'smile cards; but a lead volunteer. So I stand corrected even if they were trying to be modest)
So these two now have chosen a beautiful location – in the outskirts of Coimbatore and are practicing natural farming. So more reason for us to be in touch and visit too!
Their knowledge is amazing..their passion fabulous..involvement absolute..conviction simply great! An amazing couple..full of knowledge and assimilation..great ideas, cool outlook. Time flies when we are with them..so many topics touched..so much shared..
Be it soil or a bore pump or wood or architecture or raised beds or native trees or water conservation or what not?
There are so many quotes one can collect in the process. The best for the day for me was (what his agri contact- a traditional local farmer told him apparently) : This is Agri-culture not agri- business! So it has to be like our culture and tradition. So stop thinking of it as business all along! prophetic words, eh?

another stand out for me was they actually planted tree saplings in the trenches. right in the pits.Normally we see the saplings on the ridges of the trenches, on the piles of soil on the sides. Here they plant them inside. This way they say moisture retention is higher, wind affecting the saplings is lesser and more importantly the saplings that have come from the comforts of nursery cant take sudden torrid sun for long hours. Since the saplings shall be in the pit, for most part of the day the plant isnt exposed to direct sun. another advantage being routing water.That was a Revelation.

Since there shall be more to come from them, for now do with browsing their blog here.
There are some photos, but they come once I download from my mobile.so thats for another day.

one question lingers on though- why is it that the women of these organic couples are far more intelligent and well informed?

update: No post about Ragu and Nisha can be complete without mentioning Om, their cute son. But I had plans to write later about Om, their plans of his education (unconventional style) like many other organic farmers are doing. Though that shall happen later, lemme not be blamed for leaving out Om. He is already freaking out and I can only imagine what he shall become with their plans of educating him in their farm and not sending him to school. N said 'if our training him fails, the alternative is not school but different teacher or mode'. am looking forward.

Rishi valley – not just a school!

RV was the part of our 1000km trip, thanks to Dr. Karthik and Dr.Kamakshi(Vidya).
More on them soon, but before that on the school..yes, it fully qualifies to be “The School”.
A complete place for students (of life like us too!). what with beautiful organic farm, veg garden, lotsa trees – it’s a heaven.
The students out there are given organic meal for which most of the produce is harvested in their land itself. Only in summer when there is very little that grows do they procure from known organic farms nearby.
The campus is so lively and the students look very happy. During our stay we had food from their hostel. I should mention that, just that food alone can be a great attraction for any one to spend their life there. The students, their programs, the assembly (yes, we attended an assembly too! And learnt some whole new stuff in that half hour!), curriculum, some extra-ordinarily talented (and encouraged by school) kids – all in all very impressive.
It was exam time and after many years I saw a teacher (RG) who was very anxious to see the question paper since it was her subject that day. Man! Such teachers do exist still!!
It was such a pleasant conversation that we had with her and very insightful too.
Among other things they also grew sugarcane last season and were processing jaggery. For a long time I have been wanting to see the jaggery extraction live,which was accomplished too.

Now to the Hero and Heroine of our trip!
Karthik and Vidya are 2 lovable characters. When they came to restore a few months back we just struck a conversation and when I was told they were in RV, I assumed they should be teachers.
In my hierarchy of esteem, teachers follow farmers and so I had that ‘respect’ reserved for these two. and its only when I went there to RV I found that they both were running a rural Health centre. Phewwwwwww..they just climb up so high in my esteemate..IMHO thats a dream. To serve people in rural area like this where they hardly have access to good medical attention and advise.
And to do that with sweet smile like these 2 do..those people in the surrounding few districts are really fortunate. Karthik is a doc and Vidya a pathologist! Made for each other and for such service. So RV school extends its arm to a new area few years back which is now such a big sought after service. Some 100s get treated every day. Apart from this vidya also goes to a near by town to help a lab out there. And they both are so passionate about organic farming that they help organic farmers in the surroundings.
The highlight is that they both collect (& collate) voluminous data on the effects (ofcourse ill effects only, what else do u expect?) of the chemicals – ferti and pesticides on the farmers (esp farm labours). That’s one huge exercise and when I saw their findings it was sad truth!
Next time any of you think u don’t have time or more importantly you say that to me, I pack you to RV and let you watch this couple.
Iam not going to reel out stats of the no. of persons treated, medical camps or other details..but one statement shud suffice. While we were talking to Karthick he said he even has patients from as far as Bangalore outskirts! I was amazed and asked why? Esp when people think there is better medical facility in cities. He said very modestly in a low tone “ may be treatment with a smile is rare..”
for those interested in some stats and figures see here.
Am sure it is..to dedicate one’s life for such a cause and to carry out with such smile day in and day out and to also spread wings to all avenues possible is amazing..
Such people as I always say are hopes..they infuse so much of hope and joy in to you that all our earlier depression and lack of motivation run away.

Note: BTW they grow tomatoes in their garden, though we didn’t get time to see that. But K was to give us some tomatoes from their garden as per instruction from V but he forgets. We don’t know that yet.. but when we reach Madras the next evening a courier reaches us at the same time. It’s a small box of tomatoes grown in their garden. I dunno if he had to rush them by courier to save himself from V’s fury but that was the beginning of our tomato week.. infact it was this couple who introduced us to prabakar and asked us to visit his organic form and from there our tomato story started!

Kudos! great News that!

I had mentioned about a draconian agri law introduced by the TN govt and a massive meeting organised by various NGOs to fight it. I am told that, the same meet was held with great vigour and enthusiasm. Apart from very many farmers from all over TN, there were some politicos like Dr.Ramadoss, Mahendran of CPI, etc and the special activists like Devindar Sharmaji.

pl see here for a narration by Devindar himself.

and to great relief of all concerned this Law has been withdrawn!

some rare quick succes in our democracy!!
3 cheers to all concerned! Thats a great deed and a great news too.

Girls better than boys!

No, am not going to cut paste some joke here..
Iam serious..one of the activities that kept me busy last week was to screen a movie on GM (poison on the platter) in various schools and follow it up with a talk and Q&A session. Restore’s joint venture with another NGO- prakriti.
I was really impressed with lots of relevant and intelli questions posed by the students. The girls generally got in a bit more serious and would listen and question more. The girls only school like Vidyodaya was best. That was a great experience..they posed lots of questions and also weighed your answers seriously. BTW they even applauded a good question from their schoolmate and would also vociferously support any good (in their opinion) reply of any student:-) But they did applaud and almost pushed me to take the mike again- encore types. I was touched. infact I enjoyed every moment of this show.
Hope they all start to think in the right direction and walk to a healthy future.

xerox, revaluation and some hope..

The said nephew(in the last blog ) of mine was very dejected he got some 190+ out of 200 in 2 subjects in which he was expecting 200 (centum)! In those days we would be sitting dejected, angst over the one who corrected and cursing the system.
But these days you can apply for 'xerox' and 'revaluation! Revaluation was there then too, but mostly you would never get any positive response.
I find this Xerox thingy very impressive. All you do is go and fill up an application, pay up some nominal money and request for a copy of your answer sheet. yeah, that's why this is called xerox - the proper noun that has become a commonly used verb today is here the 'function' or procedure too!
So we did request for his xerox:-)
Its amazing! you get a copy of it. In his case they were dead right. this fella had committed very silly mistakes and so didnt even think he wud go wrong in those areas and hence was expecting 100%. But he had indeed committed small mistakes. His dejection after receiving the xerox or his parents anguish is not what I want to cover here.
Is it not amazing to be so very accountable? Its something Iam yet to overcome yet. esp, coming as it is from our state board, iam really surprised that we have such huge responsibility & accountability set in the system. We can be sure that the marks one gets and such an accountable and dependable system is rare.
Hats off to TN State Board!

World Tibet Day

Its today and many of us would have passed by this date without even any knowledge or semblance bcos our 'red' filled media wud only ignore this news.
I wish & pray Tibet is save and out of chinese clutches, for our own safety.
I sincerely wish for Tibetan Independence, soon.
Did you know its HH Dalailama's birthday thats being celebrated as World Tibet day to spread an awareness of the genocide in Tibet and to keep the freedom struggle going.

an aside: Iam maha thrilled about news of protests and riots in China. Though that has nothing to do with Tibet, iam glad some protests are happening there and actually they have been covered by media across the globe!

Kudos Sevalaya!

Remember me mentioning of a very interesting and great orphanage – sevalaya? They have done it again! They have done extremely well in the 10th & 12th exams.
100% in 12th and 98% in 10th! The topper in 12th has scored 1100 out of 1200!!!
While there are talks of the exam results, scores, performance of various schools everywhere, this stands out for me.
Imagine all students being 1st generation school-goers and to think that none shall coax or tutor them back home! No tuitions or extra efforts..school is the only choice..for a school to take up only such students and to bring out such extra ordinary results is amazing!hats off Murali! Kudos Sevalaya.
Note: those of u who really want to help a genuine and deserving orphanage/oldage home u can go here and help sevalaya.

Kaziranga

That’s a beauty of a place as mentioned here an year back after a trip to North east! what with Rhinos and so many species of birds, it is a great place to tour..
When we visited that last year we were told about the forest dept acting very responsibly and winning the locals by educating as well as distributing sops for not tampering the nature/forest.
But then we have politicos right? Its just not good people, ordinary citizens and some baddies, but this nasty villains called politicos ain’t? and so here we had 2 such guys (grt.. grt.. MLAs at that) who ganged up and trespassed in to the forest. The dutiful officer (rare variety that!) when tried to prevent these 2 goons & party from carrying out prohibited activities in the forest was beaten up.
A small solace is our visual media (prolly bcos this forest officer was awarded CNN IBN real hero of the year in the recent past) did cover this stupid act. Atleast bringing to light of such incidents esp at election times can infuse some sanity, hopefully.

Interesting meets

Last week was a special one! I really had 3 good meets and so very heartening and informative ! I should be really lucky to have had such a hatrick.
Nammalwar was in town and suddenly his appointment with some minister was moved by a day and so along with a couple of friends I got a chance to pile on. We spent some 2 hours talking about various ‘organic matters’ and then I got to accompany him to another friend’s land on the OMR (madras outskirts) to have hands on experience of converting a waste land to (prospective) organic farm! Nammalwar is always amazing! He just jumps in with the tools and starts off at the slightest trigger. Its an experience to just walk with him in any land/farm. Tons of info just ooze out. He would have so much to say about most of the plants we cross and their medicinal value, origin etc.
Here the bonus was the knowledge transfer to make the best of small lands esp in the urban outskirts (where due to real estate values we are losing agri lands by the minute).
How to create beds, raise them, mulching, sowing seeds, covering, land preparation, best utilization of exisiting landscape, using the ‘unwanted’ stones in that land for bed sides- were just some of the ideas he sowed in to us. even educating us how to use the crowbar effectively! A memorable day for me.
A couple of days later with some friends I visited Tree natesan , and as always its such a pleasant thing to meet or talk to him. He is a mobile data bank. He would just throw the latin names, origin, myths that surround a species, some stories about how they came to India (or how they have been native plants for ages). On a glance at a field he would come out with what plants/ trees suit that soil the best and what should one do. To visit various farms with him and also some govt school that he is helping plan a computer room, a big library that he has helped organize in a rural area with so much contributions, lakes he has restored..time just will never be enough. The unique use of geese (& their shit too), how the korai pul (a weed) multiplies, chola kings' ventures in the sholavarm side, breaking the myth that eucalyptus ‘drinks’ lotsa water…this list can go on, bcos he will just spray so much info and all relevant in some way and the bonus will be his trials in early days and so special learning for us!

There was a third one- an amazing person, so down to earth inspite of his huge success & acclaim across the globe. But am not going to write about this person now as I didn’t seek his permission to mention that here in this blog. That shall happen soon.

Such people of fame and huge achievements being so humble and courteous, so forthcoming with information are catalysts for folks like me. They not only give hope but motivate you so much.